This disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus that, upon receiving a notification about an earthquake, makes a transition to a particular mode.
An image forming apparatus has a printing function. The image forming apparatus also has a communication function for performing data transmission/reception to/from a computer or a network. It is desirable that, at the occurrence of an emergency such as an earthquake, a wealth of functions owned by the image forming apparatus be utilized to ensure people's safety. Based on this viewpoint, there is known one example of an image forming apparatus described in the following.
To be specific, there is known an image forming apparatus that receives an earthquake early warning, acquires in advance safety information related to ensuring safety at the occurrence of an earthquake except for a map showing evacuation routes, stores the safety information thus acquired, and upon an earthquake early warning being received, while suspending a process in progress, prints out the safety information that has been stored. This configuration is intended to provide promptly information necessary to ensure safety at the occurrence of an earthquake by, upon receiving an earthquake early warning, while suspending a process in progress, printing out safety information that has been acquired in advance.
An image forming apparatus may be designed to be capable of detecting the occurrence of an earthquake by including a sensor that detects a vibration, such as a vibration sensor, or receiving an earthquake early warning. In a case of the above-described known image forming apparatus, upon detecting the occurrence of an earthquake, it suspends a print job and prints out safety information.
There is, however, a case where, due to an earthquake, a malfunction occurs in an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus is a precision machine and thus may malfunction when subjected to an impact. Particularly in an earthquake causing large vibrations, even the image forming apparatus is shaken largely. As a result, there is a case where the image forming apparatus collides against a wall or an object installed in an office, such as a desk, a case where the image forming apparatus falls over, or a case where some object falls on the image forming apparatus. When a malfunction occurs due to an earthquake, a job using a malfunctioning portion becomes non-executable. That is, there is a possibility that, due to a malfunction caused by an earthquake, part of functions of the image forming apparatus become unavailable (part of jobs become non-executable).
It may not be obvious at a glance that, due to an earthquake, a malfunction has occurred in an image forming apparatus. There is a case where, since a malfunctioning portion is unknown, a user attempts to make the image forming apparatus perform a job using the portion in which the malfunction is occurring. Since the malfunction has been occurring, however, the job could not be completed, and this situation is detected as the occurrence of an error.
Once such an error is detected, in the image forming apparatus, a certain job is no longer executable until the error is corrected. Moreover, the error continues to be detected until repair of the malfunctioning portion is completed. After the earthquake, a state continues where, although a job using a portion in which no malfunction is occurring still is executable, the entire image forming apparatus is unavailable. There is, therefore, a problem that it should be promptly detected which function has become unavailable as a result of the occurrence of an earthquake.
The above-mentioned known image forming apparatus, upon detecting the occurrence of an earthquake, suspends a print job and prints out safety information. In a case, however, where, due to an earthquake, a malfunction has occurred in a portion in which printing is performed, safety information cannot be printed out, so that this situation is detected as the occurrence of an error, leading to a possibility that a state continues where the image forming apparatus is unavailable.